Midwinter: “Goodbye Yellow-walled Room”

(tap, tap, tap) Is this thing on? Check, one, two…

Sequestered in my home office, on a cold winter Tuesday. It’s Tuesday, right? Halfway through my second day hunkered down in here, i’ve run out of easy projects and mindless busywork, and am not quite ready to tackle the hard stuff (tax prep, file purge, etc.).

So here i am.

Hi.

i hope another year of navigating a global plague finds you and yours healthy and warm.

Banished to my office to stay out of the way as we start interior work on the new house. We learned last year that daisyfae gets a bit batty when the yardwork doesn’t wear her out. Since travel will be curtailed this year, we launched a series of household projects that need to be executed by pros. We will be doing some of the easier bits.

Painting is fun, and therapeutic. i honestly enjoy the prep work, and am a seasoned hand at patching walls and doing skim coating. But when you have 20′ ceilings, and a rather debilitating fear of heights, professionals are necessary. And it’s a big room…

This is the living room about midway through day 2. Mercifully, it will only be yellow for a few days longer. Normally this would have been done by a crew, but being short staffed, Mike has to do this himself. He will likely be doing all the painting, too. Suspect we’ll just adopt him before the project is over.

Sure, i could sit out in the living room, and play with my phone while Mike is working. He could throw a drop cloth over me as needed. Is there anything worse than sitting lazily in an armchair while the hired worker is toiling over a project you choose not to do?

yes. risking death on a ladder while a lazy home owner plays with her phone

Original plan was for 3 days, but expecting a week or more. He’s nice, laughs at our jokes, and has no fear of the ladder. i’ll be feeding him before the week is over.

Studley and i are both doing well. The homestead kept us happily puttering about until we put it to bed sometime in November. Ate and drank our way through the holidays. Stayed home. A lot. Just back from a visit to Alaska, spending the new year with Studley’s kids and trying not to freeze our gonads off. It was a good visit. .

Awash in first world problems, we have no complaints.

With at least the remainder of the week being sequestered in the home office, i plan to use the time to get back out and visit my blogmates. And just maybe hoark up some of the random nuggets rattling around in my winter brain.

21 thoughts on “Midwinter: “Goodbye Yellow-walled Room”

  1. Lasagna. Mmm.

    Good, hot, stick-to-your-ribs, wintertime food.

    Sounds like a great plan for feeding the ladder-climbers.

    On Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 15:55 Trailer Park Refugee wrote:

    > daisyfae posted: ” (tap, tap, tap) Is this thing on? Check, one, two… > Sequestered in my home office, on a cold winter Tuesday. It’s Tuesday, > right? Halfway through my second day hunkered down in here, i’ve run out of > easy projects and mindless busywork, and am not qui” >

    • Yesterday was a lasagna prep day – but for the local “lasagna drop” downtown. Mike said it smelled good! He will likely get sent home with a small pan next week. He’s a single dad with a 5 year old….

    • You’re welcome to it! Some bottles have moved house with me twice. Much of it is of dubious quality, best used for summer sangria. Im not much of a wine drinker, preferring beer and booze. Happy to share! Now, regarding the Bourbon collection….

  2. Glad that you are both doing well. That does look like a lovely room.
    Even without the ladder thing I loathe painting and am bad at it.
    I suspect the things that my brain hoarks up could be/should be/would be classified as UDOs (Unidentified Disgusting Objects).

    • The room “has good bones”, as they say, but is in need of a decor update. The carpet is of good quality, cleans up nicely, but has the primary flaw of being maroon. To have this much carpet and an orange elder kitty means I’m constantly plucking hair clumps from the floor. It will be replaced with neutral vinyl plank flooring in a few months to make it easier to have critters in the household.

      Hope to catch up on happenings in you part of the world as I venture forth for blog reading this week!

    • Those windows are a true gift. There are skylights over the upstairs loft, making the natural lighting glorious! The yellow will become a true neutral “linen” shade. I spent too much time agonizing over paint colors that can tone down the orange tones of the honey oak stained wood on the windows, and stairs. Once spring arrives, the default accent color for this room is green. The view of the lawn, trees, and gardens is joyful…

  3. I know you and Studley aren’t old enough to be my parents and shit but i was thinking maybe you could adopt me as well? I’ll bring chocolates (nudge nudge wink wink), i’m decent at painting things, mow a fine lawn and am pretty good at Jeopardy while we sit around the fire…just a thought, it would be like adopting a large and playful dog, you just wouldn’t have to clean up my shit… feckin hell i’m a strange one… glad to see you back Miss Daisy!

    • In a heartbeat, kiddo! Bring the boys, too! There’s a creek for chasing frogs and snakes, and we just got a utility vehicle for hauling mulch, dirt, and wood. It will soon have a 66″ snow plow on it, and we will be making ourselves useful to the neighbors! Oh, and rather than chocolates, perhaps some of those magical fungi you seem to be able to find on the reg…

  4. That’s a large room and the tall ceiling adds to the difficulty of painting. Good choice to contract it out. I’ve decided more than a decade ago that large (even some small) house repairs are better left for others. I have a brother-in-law that seems to enjoy the challenge of this type of work. He’s only about 4 years younger than me. But his attitude/motivation about it is very different than mine. I’ve benefited from his willingness to take on these jobs. He is very good too.
    Many might call it being lazy. While I don’t completely disagree, if the work give you more pain and the results are not so great then why take it on. If I hurt or possibly disabled myself from some fall during a house repair I would be angry with myself from then on.

    • Likewise, I try to assess “skill required” and “enjoyment factor”, but also have to consider “cost of a pro” in the equation. We are doing the hallway and front entryway to save some $$ (since no ladders required). I kind of like stripping wallpaper – when it had been properly installed. Prior homeowners did good work, so tackling the rest of bedroom walls will be satisfying when I get to it… probably after this room is done.

  5. hey! That primrose shade is pretty much what our previous interior was before we repainted in the brighter yellow. The next house WILL BE WHITE!!!
    It’s all looking good and even better to see you back in the blogosphere.

    • In a smaller room, this wouldn’t be bad. It is such a huge room that making it neutral – with focus on the windows – will just help… I don’t know, calm it down. Much of the decor here is busy. The Victorian wallpaper in the bedroom damn near keeps me awake! Trying to bring some zen and calm…and to update! This place is truly a timecapsule of 1995, when the prior owners did the big renovation. Kitchen sink is forest green!?!? And yes, it feels good to poke my head back out here and see my old mates again! ❤️

  6. Hey, sweetpea! I hear you about ladders and high ceilings! We did the same thing in Savannah,got a professional to do it! it truly was fun experience every time he said hi to the MITM! I think you know the MITM’s real name so hearing said with a SERIOUS Southern drawl was hilarious! Love to you and Studley and HNY!! xoxox

    • Happy New Year (and belated birthday)! I bet that was entertaining! We are on hold with the project – painter got ‘rona from the little dude. The downside of having a one man crew, I guess. Thinking he’ll be cleared to work late next week… or not! Xoxoxo

  7. Augh, The ‘rona got him down, that’s disappointing in so many ways. Hope they are all on the mend. That was casual wasn’t it, like it (‘rona) was like a cold or the flu. anyhoo, looking good. Happy February, got my kitchen measured yesterday for the initial $hock of a remodel.

  8. (tap, tap, tap) Is this thing on? Check, one, two… – this post started this way. However that was months ago. Everyone still fine? I was just digging through old blog memories and read a comment from you. All the best

  9. “Is there anything worse than sitting lazily in an armchair while the hired worker is toiling over a project you choose not to do?” Many things: Justin Bieber, a paper cut, TikTok, old bananas, the fragrance they put in fabric softener and only posting a comment a year and a half late. Soz.

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